Medicine
by Amsterdam Flowers
Summary: The Hokage has had enough of watching Kakashi's self-destructive tendencies following the death of Minato and orders him to start seeing Konoha's top psychologist. Shiori Yamanaka's mission is simple: she needs to gain the trust of Konoha's most mysterious and distrustful ninja. She's not sure it's possible. Eventual KakashiXOC
1. Chapter 1

**Medicine**

 **Chapter 1**

Kakashi Hatake glared at the door in front of him, as though his one visible eye could burn a hole in it. Unfortunately, his efforts were fruitless and after a moment of languishing, he sighed, a raised a hand to knock on the door.

"Come in," a voice came from inside before he even knocked. Resignation burning within him, he obliged by opening the door and letting himself in.

The sight was not what he was expecting. The image of white rooms with padded walls may have been a bit of a dramatic overstretch, but what he saw was still surprising. It was a cozy office room with bookshelves lining the walls, a desk in front of them with tidy piles of paperwork. Across from the desk set up was a set of comfy and well-used looking couches around a coffee table. A tea tray was in the corner, and the décor was more appropriate for someone's living room than a doctor's office.

And speaking of the doctor…

Shiori Yamanaka was standing beside the window with her arms crossed over her hands clasped behind her back, half glancing back at him with inquisitive forest green eyes. She had long pale blonde hair in a high ponytail that trailed all the way down her back and tan skin, with some faint freckles on her nose and cheeks. She was wearing the standard Konoha blue uniform with the sleeves rolled up, though he didn't see her headband or flak jacket.

He had heard of her in passing, though they had never interacted. She was a prominent med-nin in the village, who took intel missions when she was on duty. She had a reputation for infiltration, and for being one of the only specialists on psychological health in the village.

She was studying him. The way her eyes seemed to pierce through him was evidence enough she was from her clan. Still, he held his ground until she nodded to him and gestured to the couches, unreadable expression unchanging.

"Hatake-san, a pleasure, let's sit down," she said pleasantly. Kakashi hesitantly moved to sit, but remained tense.

She crossed her arms and legs, returning to her appraisal of him. After a minute, her mouth turned down into a small frown and she gave him an unimpressed look.

"You don't want to be here," she stated lightly. Kakashi didn't think he was being obvious about it, but she was a Yamanaka, and they were experts on being able to read people so he rolled with it.

"Not at all, but the Hokage ordered it directly," he replied honestly.

"And you don't intend on telling me anything, and are tensing to prepare yourself against my mysterious Yamanaka mind games," she said again. The corner of her mouth twitched, but he ignored it.

"You're pretty good at this," he admitted. He hid his surprise well at how accurate she was after just shortly observing his body language. She rolled her eyes at him, completely relaxing her posture and slouching on the couch, grabbing a book from the arm and flipping it open. Right in front of him, she began to read.

Kakashi waited for a moment, before he finally asked, "… what are you doing?"

She rolled her eyes again, not even sparing him another glance, "I don't know what you've heard about me and my duties, but I'm very busy and have very little down time. I have no intention of fruitlessly wasting my time on you if you're not a willing participant in treatment."

Kakashi recoiled a little in shock. The Hokage sent him to her because she was supposed to be the best! He had been adamantly against it, and had been extremely embarrassed to be sent to a _psychologist,_ but was still expecting to be subjected to hours of torture and having this woman try to get him to _talk about his feelings_.

But she seemed very uninterested. She gave him a lazy look briefly over her book.

"I'll be here if you ever have an emotional revelation and want to talk about your feelings and shit, but based on your history and well-known dislike for doctors, I won't hold my breath. Frankly, you have to keep coming as long as Hokage-sama makes you, and I get paid whether you get better or not," she finished with a shrug.

He blinked incredulously at her, unsure if her should be annoyed with her terrible attitude, or relieved that she wasn't going to interrogate him and tell him to _let go of the past_ and _it's not your fault_.

He stayed tense and silent for a good three minutes, during which she completely ignored him, before he started to relax, and pulled his own.

It was actually kind of nice. The couch was comfortable, and it was quiet, where Gai couldn't burst out and challenge him to another ridiculous challenge. Shiori wasn't bad company, in the sense of she was completely silent and absorbed in her own time-killing. He had been dreading this since the Hokage ordered it, but maybe spending an hour a week unwinding wouldn't be so bad.

;

"So?"

Shiori frowned, crossing her arms over her chest, "He'll be a tough egg to crack, but I'll be able to do it. His reputation made him sound worse than he is, I think," she replied thoughtfully. The third Hokage sighed, nodding.

"He's always had a bad history of… not taking care of himself, and even though he can be quite reckless on missions, often refuses to go to the hospital," the Hokage said with a shake of the head. "I'm hoping you can find a way to take care of that with all of this and… remedy his willingness to seek treatment."

Shiori sighed, and nodded. Her mission was to do something she wasn't sure anyone had fully done before; she had to gain Kakashi Hatake's trust.


	2. Chapter 2

**Medicine**

 **Chapter 2**

"Good afternoon, Hatake-san. Feel like gushing about your feelings today?" Shiori said by way of greeting after she had let Kakashi into her office the following week.

"Nope," Kakashi replied cheerfully with a fake smile. She shook her head and went to work at her desk while he went back to the couch like the previous week to read a book.

The week after that, Kakashi let himself in and threw himself on the couch after giving her a lazy greeting, making Shiori smirk in satisfaction to herself.

He was getting comfortable.

;

On the sixth week, Kakashi came into the room a few hours after having returned from a mission. His greeting was a little more halfhearted, and he let himself onto the couch much more carefully, as though he was favoring one side.

Shiori shot him a bored glance, "Hey, Kakashi-san, your mission went well?" she inquired. Kakashi nodded the affirmative and tried not to flinch.

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you hurt? I can take a look if you want, maybe actually make this session about some sort of treatment," she suggested casually. Kakashi hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Well, I might as well put you to work once in a while," he casually joked.

Shiori tried to not let the triumph show on her face as she walked over and sat down beside him. She focused her chakra to her palms and put one on his back to run a diagnostic jutsu, frowning slightly. He wasn't too injured, but it looks like there was some serious bruising around his ribs, something that he shouldn't continue training with…

She sighed and put her hands on his side, focusing on healing the bruising. They sat silently for a few moments while she worked, and then she focused a bit on transferring a bit of her chakra to him - just enough to alleviate some of the chakra exhaustion he must've been feeling.

He grinned at her appreciatively as she finished and moved away, "Ah, that's much better, thank you, Shiori-san."

She gave him a ghost of a smile back, but rolled her eyes at him, "It would've been better for you to actually go check in to the hospital, have proper treatments done, keep your records updated…" she trailed off, cocking an eyebrow at him. His closed eye smile didn't change, so she sighed in exasperation at him, "but it is my pleasure to perform half-assed, off the books treatment for your convenience," she finished with a shake of her head.

To her surprise, Kakashi actually snorted before pulling out his book with a content look in his eye.

;

Shiori gave Anko a toothy grin while they parted ways. She was slick with sweat, and her short purple battle kimono was soaked through and stuck to her skin, but she felt invigorated. There was nothing quite like a ferocious training session after being stuck off duty for so long. Taking deep breaths, she decided to take the long way home, taking several detours through the training grounds, taking her time having a walk, enjoying her first day off in a while.

She eventually stumbled across training ground 3, where she slowed as she realized the grounds were not empty, and there was a man standing in front of the memorial stone with the setting sun behind him.

Not just any man though, because Kakashi's gravity-defying distinctive hair-do was identifiable from a mile away.

She silently approached, not wanting to disturb him. She watched his morose expression as he stared down at the names, and she frowned thoughtfully, _"Oh, what I wouldn't give to get inside that head, Kakashi, and be the one to figure out what makes you tick."_

She plastered on a lazy grin and walked up beside him, "Hey, Kakashi-san," she greeted pleasantly. Kakashi quickly turned to her, wearing a quick fake smile of his own.

"Ah, Shiori-san. How nice to see you outside of your natural habitat," he joked. Shiori bit back a retort, a little pleasantly surprised he was comfortable enough to make a joke at her.

"As much as I adore being cooped up with paperwork and patients all day, even I need to get outside sometimes. I'm starting to miss field work," she sighed.

"Ah, speaking of patients…"

She gave him a deadpan, unimpressed look as he chuckled nervously and held out his arm.

"I think I pulled a muscle the other day, could you…"

She sighed and walked up to him, and held his arm as she activated a simple healing jutsu. She was exasperated with him, but as a doctor, still glad that he had at least moved to _occasionally_ letting her know he was injured and having her heal him.

"Thank you, Shiori-san," he said, this time with a genuine small little smile, "I don't know what I'd do if you returned to active duty. Where would I be without my personal little doctor?"

She sent him a reproachful look. She was fairly tall for a kunoichi at 5'7, so she wasn't much shorter than him. He just continued grinning at her.

She shook her head, but couldn't hold onto any actual irritation with him. Over the past two months, they had built up a comfortable level of companionship and banter. They weren't good friends by any means, but they were relaxed around each other, which was a pretty big step for someone like Kakashi.

They both looked back to the memorial stone silently. Kakashi's smile dropped which did not go unnoticed by Shiori. She quietly reflected on the memorial stone for a few minutes before she spoke, choosing her words carefully. She wanted to share information with Kakashi as a tool to earn his trust, but also because she enjoyed his company and didn't mind talking a bit about herself to continue bridging the gap between them.

"My parents are both on this stone. So is my genin team, including my sensei," she started, making Kakashi shoot his head towards her in surprise, single visible eye wide. She glanced at him with a small smile.

"I'm a medical ninja, but I couldn't really help any of them. My teammates both died in the war. I was beside them when it happened, but didn't have the skill to save them," she said sadly, but there was still a fond look in her eye.

"I do not know a single person who doesn't blame themselves for their close one's deaths somehow," she continued, making Kakashi's breath hitch in his throat. He was still watching her cautiously.

"I've had children as young as four who blamed themselves for not being able to protect their parents," she said, with a small chuckle. "As humans, we are quick to find fault within ourselves, and carry the heavy burden of guilt that most of the time does not rightfully belong to us.

"I have watched a lot of death, having worked as a medical ninja through two hugely disastrous events, and it really gave me perspective. Blaming ourselves is perhaps part of the grieving process, but it doesn't always make sense. I hated myself for not being able to save my teammates, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a single person who blamed me for it. What could I have done? I was a genin at the beginning of my medical training. I am sad to have lost them, but there's nothing I could've done or changed that would've resulted in their survival. They died protecting me, and protecting Konoha, and I know logically they wouldn't blame me either," she said, finally turning to him. He was surprised when she gave him a wide, hopeful smile, no sadness in her eyes.

"Sometimes, all we can do is our best. Because of their sacrifices, I'm alive, and I have been able to save many more lives in their place. I don't know a single Konoha ninja that wouldn't put their life on the line for a similar cause. It is my pleasure and honor to hold their memory in my heart and proudly continue onwards in their spirit."

Kakashi gaped at her. She had lost so many too, but she wasn't… sad. Or if she was, she was lying very well. How could she lose her whole team and be so at peace with it? Could he be like that?

Before his thoughts could go further, she let out a loud yawn, and stretched her arms above her head.

"Ah, sorry, I'm rambling, you should've stopped me, I'm a therapist, we're really good at babbling on and giving positive anecdotes about life. I've probably interrupted you enough now, I'm sweaty and could really use some dinner after training," she said, giving him another dazzling smile.

Kakashi blinked at her, unsure what to think. Was she trying to get inside his head, or was she really just so friendly and open when she wanted to be? He could never tell with the Yamanakas. Still, there was something about her smile, and the sincere look in her eyes…

"Right… Well, thanks, Shiori-san. I'll see you in a few days I guess," he said with a half-hearted smile. She grinned back and gave him a small wave, before turning on her heel and walking away.

Kakashi watched her leave out of his peripherals until she had completely disappeared from the training ground.


End file.
